North Carolina’s Eastern Band of the Cherokee tribal council voted unanimously September 20 to withdraw a resolution requesting $3.5 million to start site work on a hotel project at the Sequoyah National Golf Club.
The tribal council approved the 125-room hotel project in 2018 with DreamCatcher Hotels as the developer and a $25.5 million budget. However council members wonder why it has taken DreamCatcher so long to reach this point.
According to the Smoky Mountain News, Councilmember Bo Crowe declared, “The contract on the floor still states 125 rooms, and it’s a binding contract for the $25.3 million with site work included.” He added, “So if they’re not going to be able to hold up to what the binding contract is, then the contract gets to be null and void at this time, and then go out and look for a new company?”
However, a representative for DreamCatcher told councilmembers, “We’re not a builder.”
The DreamCatcher representative added, “We don’t come in here and build this hotel for you. We get bids. That is well outlined within our contracts. We do have a fiduciary duty for that budget that you’re speaking of; immediately when we know we have a budget problem to alert the owner and let them know what the budget problem is. We did that in this case.”
The contractor bids were all higher than expected, and with the money budget DreamCatcher could build a 103-room hotel, but not 125-rooms, said the developer.
The tribe stands to lose millions of dollars if it kills the project, the council was told. Such as the money already committed to plans, designs and preliminary work.
A new tribal council was due to take its seat on October 4, and it will be up to it to make the final determination of whether to cancel or go forward with the hotel—but at a higher price.
